Federal health officials are investigating after an outbreak of illness
has caused Caribbean Princess cruise ship to ends its trip early and
returned to port in Houston late Thursday more than a day ahead of
schedule after more than 170 passengers and crew members aboard became
sick. (Associated Press)

Cruise line cites fog, not illness, for return

HOUSTON — A cruise ship that had more than 180 passengers and crew fall sick with an apparent stomach virus returned
to a Houston-area port early due to a dense fog advisory and not because people were vomiting and had diarrhea, a Princess
Cruises spokeswoman said Friday.

But passengers whose seven-day vacation was
cut short, missing their last stop in Belize, questioned that version of
events.
They said the crew announced on the second day of the cruise that
people were sick, apparently with highly contagious norovirus,
and that extra precautions were being taken to ensure it didn't
spread.

"I was worried I might come down with the
illness, but as days went by I didn't, so I felt more comfortable," said
Doris Hajewski,
66, of Waukesha, Wis., a suburb of Milwaukee.

"Really, if you didn't get sick, you didn't
notice much, just the extra hand sanitizers and the extra precautions at
the buffet,"
she added, explaining that crew served at the buffet instead of
passengers being allowed to handle the food themselves.

It was on Tuesday, when the crew announced the ship would return a day early due to a sea fog advisory that could close the
Pasadena port, that passengers began questioning the validity of the information, Hajewski said.

"People were unhappy with that and the sentiment on the ship became more that it wasn't because of the possible fog," she
said.

A Royal Caribbean cruise returned early to New Jersey on Wednesday after nearly 700 people became ill with the same suspected
gastrointestinal illness.

But Princess Cruises spokeswoman Julie Benson said the situation aboard the Caribbean Princess was not the same.

"If we did not have the potential of the closure of the port because of fog we would not have come in early," Benson said.

The National Weather Service says it issued a warning about sea fog from Friday through Sunday. The Port of Houston says pilots
halt all docking activity if fog is too dense.

The Caribbean Princess departed Jan. 25 for the Caribbean with more than 4,200 people on board. It returned Thursday night
instead of Saturday. Cruise liners are required to report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention if more than 3
percent of the passengers on board the ship become sick.

According to the CDC website, there are
about a dozen cases annually where so many people become ill on a
cruise, the vast
majority with norovirus. This year there have already been three
reported cases, including on the Caribbean Princess, and
at least two appear to be due to that stomach virus. Overall,
though, the CDC says only about 1 percent to 2 percent of norovirus
outbreaks occur on ships. The vast majority of outbreaks are in
nursing homes.

Cruise Lines International Association reports that more than 20 million people took cruises in 2012.

Officials with the CDC boarded the Caribbean
Princess early Friday and are overseeing sanitation of the vessel
before it departs
for its next journey on Saturday, Benson added. Crew will clean
all surfaces of the ship — from elevator buttons to railings
— with a special liquid disinfectant.

"To have people come on board when they are
ill is, unfortunately, not a rare occurrence," Benson said. She said
crew members
confirmed the virus in a lab on board the ship and closely
monitored everyone who reported to the infirmary, especially with
gastrointestinal problems.

Jay Herring, a senior officer for Carnival Cruise Lines from 2002 to 2004, said norovirus spreads easily on a cruise ship
where thousands of people travel together in a confined space.

"One time we had three consecutive cruises that had norovirus and it wasn't until we got serious about disinfecting that we
got rid of it," said Herring, also the author of "The Truth About Cruise Ships."

"Every casino chip, every elevator button, every hand rail was disinfected," he added.

Herring doesn't believe having just over 3 percent of the passengers and crew ill was enough to cut short the voyage. But
he doesn't recall fog ever ending a voyage when he worked for Carnival Cruises.

"I think the norovirus and the fog combined together is what ended this cruise early. I think the norovirus played a role,"
Herring said.

By and large, Hajewski said the cruise was
fairly normal for those who didn't become sick. She said she and her
traveling
companion were not infected. The pools remained open, the food was
good and, at first, the weather was pleasant. Unlike reports
from the Royal Caribbean cruise of people vomiting in bags,
buckets and even on the floor, she said she didn't see anyone
get sick.

She said the crew handled the situation professionally and were strict about quarantining ill passengers.

"It's just a disappointment to miss a port," Hajewski said.

She added that "there are no guarantees that everything will go as planned no matter where you travel. Whether it's a cruise,
whether it's land travel, you're always taking a risk."